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Friday, 6 March 2015

Review: Blood and Feathers (Blood and Feathers #1) by Lou Morgan

Goodreads Synopsis:

Alice isn't
having the best of days. She was late for work, she missed her bus, and now
she's getting rained on. What she doesn't know is that her day's about to get
worse: the epic, grand-scale kind of worse that comes from the arrival of twoangelswho
claim everything about her life is a lie.

The war between the angels and theFallenis escalating; the age-old balance is
tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the
balance is to be restored, the angels must act - or risk the Fallen taking
control. Forever.

That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided byMallory- a disgraced angel with a drinking problem and a
whole load of secrets - Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and
why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past?
What is it the angels are hiding - and can she trust either side?

Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just
hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Review:

So much heart-pounding action and so much awesomeness!

This book could have easily become another drab angel story
that drew me in by its beautiful cover,
where the heroes valiantly save the day (at the last minute) and you never
really fear for any of the characters. But it wasn’t. Constantly, there was the
threat of characters dying and constantly you were reminded that perhaps the
angels wouldn’t win…

Even then, with the line between
angels and the Fallen, heaven and hell blurred – loyalties are hard to place.
Something Alice who has been dumped right in the centre of it has to determine,
along with a thousand other things pushed away inside her head. The half-breed thing
and consequent powers might just be the first thing on her growing list. She is
an amazing character to follow because she’s not only funny but tough like its
no-one’s business. Even faced with hell – you heard me – hell and Lucifer she kept going, making her own decisions. That’s
real strength.

Lou Morgan wrote her character so
beautifully, but it was her world building that stole the show. Phe-no-me-nal!
(And that was me trying to emphasise the word, not because I can’t spell…) She
has done her research and worked it into her own vision, where there are hierarchies
of angels; a lot of whom don’t exactly fit the textbook definition. As well as
layers of hell that seriously creep me out! The collision of these two was breath-taking.
In particular, these scenes had an interesting cinematic feel to it and I can
just imagine a film adaptation working extraordinarily well (someone needs to
get on that. Now.)

One thing this book was missing is the romance aspect. For
me, Mallory was interesting but not in that way… the connection he had with
Alice’s mother made it impossible to see him as a potential love interest.
However it turns out, this book didn’t need any kind of romance to keep me
interested!

Blood and Feathers is an epic read where heaven and hell
collide and not everything has a clear

answer.

Favourite Quotes:

“What’s the first word
you think if when I say ‘angel’?” asked Mallory.

Alice
shrugged. “I don’t know… guns?”

“The last time I saw
you, I told you to…”

“…to
go to hell. Fair enough. Did that, and yet here you are. Anyone would think you
were following me.”

“The greatest wisdom
is usually the most impenetrable. Just look at fortune cookies.”

“It had begun with a
stranger, silhouetted against the gloom of a rainy day, and it would end with
him. It would end now.”

Disclaimer

I can guarantee that all of my reviews are honest, which includes the reviews I have written based on review copies I have received which are clearly specified. The fact that they are review copies has no impact on my thoughts and opinions stated in the review. I do not receive any form of monetary compensation for my reviews from authors/publishers.